Aria lack of 5GHz support confusing

[mitchsw]

Today I spent an hour trying to connect my Aria to my home wifi, only recieving helpful "We could not reach the network you selected." errors. I worked out the problem is my computer is connected to the 5GHz network, and the Aria does not support 5GHz, but it took a long time for me to realize this.

A helpful error message before the wizzard attempts connection would be benefical for others.

[SunsetRunner]

That's a very good suggestion. Does your wifi not also offer the slower connection? Mine offers both and on my phone I can choose "either" or "auto". I found connections were inconsistent unless I used "auto".

[JuanJoFitbit]

@mitchsw It's great to have you aboard in our Fitbit Community! I would like to follow up and would like to know if you took into consideration the advice that my friend @SunsetRunner shared. Were you able to lower the GHz of your router or dies the setup issue persist?

Looking forward to your response my friend!

[Ceris862]

Very Frustrated...I've spent HOURS !! trying to resolve the connection issues now that we have moved to a new ISP.....finally discovered that the Aria wont work on 5Ghz or 802.11ac...Finally managed to get my ISP to change to 2.4 Ghz and 802.11b...Connected....now getting THINKING ERR messages....I'm ready to launch my Aria through a window.....not a user friendlynproduct at all.

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@mitchsw wrote:

Today I spent an hour trying to connect my Aria to my home wifi, only recieving helpful "We could not reach the network you selected." errors. I worked out the problem is my computer is connected to the 5GHz network, and the Aria does not support 5GHz, but it took a long time for me to realize this.

A helpful error message before the wizzard attempts connection would be benefical for others.

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[kahandler]

Hello Juan-  I think the proper answer from the company is "we are about to launch the Aria with a software upgrade so that it can be used with modern wi-fi protocols."  It is absurd to ask people to downgrade their wi-fi for a scale.  I am furious I spent $130 on this and it doesn't work with my wi-fi.

[mitchsw]

It's a hardware limitation of the Aria, I would bet money it doesn't have a 5GHz radio. This is fine, almost all home routers will support 5GHz and 2.4GHz, however the Fitbit software should make it clear that it cannot connect to a 5GHz network. This will save customers time, especially as more and more people use 5GHz at home.

[Mattster]

Ha. Looking at the specs of the new soon to be released Aria 2 and see it now supports 802.11g/n but only on 2.4Ghz still.

Really stupid, the designer's need to be shot considering how much trouble I've seen people have with the Aria 1 due to using such an out of date chip.

Logically the new model should have an up-to-date recent model chip in it when the product is released to them make it compatible for the next few years until an Aria 3 is eventually released. 

When a new product is out of date on release it means that it's very out of date in another year or two. Just really stupid.

It should have a chip supporting 5Ghz and 802.11ac as a minimum, but too late.

Matt

[Foubrac]

Well, |I tried to select the 2.4G setting on the Fitbit set up utility and once I put that IN, it is impossible to keep going through the set up process because there are no navigation bars or arrows.  I agree with those who have called this a piece of crap after investing a few hours of my valuable time following a procedure that doesn't work EVER!

[MariettaGecko]

What's weird about this is that my network has both standard 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks active.  However, the name of the two is the same, except that the 5g has -5g attached to the end.  The aria apparently does have a 5g radio, as it was able to see the 5g wifi network, but cannot connect to it.  Where this becomes a problem is in the fact that the Aria doesn't display the -5g on the end of the network name...  The result is that I have two networks that show the same name, but one it cannot connect to.

[Kateofmahomet]

So I have had my Aria for many years and now it won't connect  and just stays in active setup mode???  Called my internet provider and Fitbit  -  Fitbit says too bad and offered to have me buy the new scale for 129.....  wtf this thing is well cared for and does not move

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@Ceris862 wrote:

Very Frustrated...I've spent HOURS !! trying to resolve the connection issues now that we have moved to a new ISP.....finally discovered that the Aria wont work on 5Ghz or 802.11ac...Finally managed to get my ISP to change to 2.4 Ghz and 802.11b...Connected....now getting THINKING ERR messages....I'm ready to launch my Aria through a window.....not a user friendlynproduct at all.

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@mitchswwrote:

Today I spent an hour trying to connect my Aria to my home wifi, only recieving helpful "We could not reach the network you selected." errors. I worked out the problem is my computer is connected to the 5GHz network, and the Aria does not support 5GHz, but it took a long time for me to realize this.

A helpful error message before the wizzard attempts connection would be benefical for others.

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[Kateofmahomet]

All the sudden mine will not connect to the wifi 2.4ghz

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@mitchsw wrote:

It's a hardware limitation of the Aria, I would bet money it doesn't have a 5GHz radio. This is fine, almost all home routers will support 5GHz and 2.4GHz, however the Fitbit software should make it clear that it cannot connect to a 5GHz network. This will save customers time, especially as more and more people use 5GHz at home.

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[Petefreud]

Please fix this, FitBit. Really sad that this isn’t fixed yet. This has been going on for THREE years?? C’mon man!! Fix my scale.

[Petefreud]

Here is the message I get when I try the proposed solution: 

 

[phv]

I can live with the fact that the Aria only use 2.4 GhZ: there is no much need for bandwidth for transferring weight data measures a couple of time per day, ...and 2.4GhZ can be transmitted at a higher distance.

However, when you get top-of-the-notch router upgrades (like meshes), the network infrastructure use the same SSID for several satellites and for all frequencies (2.4GhZ and 5GhZ) ...and it is not normal that the presence of the 5GhZ band complementarilty to the 2.4GhZ one would ennoy the FitBit Aria. Activating 2.4GhZ is an option. Disabling 5GhZ is not an option.  

[phv]

I saw in the Netgear forums a suggestion that the issue is when the same SSID si used for both frequencies *at setup time*.

A workaround seems to be to go to the Netgear router to "temporarily lower the power of the 5Ghz band signal" and setup the scale at a distance from the router so that it can see only the 2.4Ghz signal and not the 5Ghz one. Once setup, it is in principle OK to be closer or or to have the 5Ghz signal power back to 100%.

I didn't try yet.

[Mattster]

that's a load of nonsense. each frequency is just that. a separate frequency. as the aria doesn't have a 5 GHz chip, it isn't capable of seeing whatever stupid things being done with the 5 GHz frequency band.

so you can safely ignore this suggestion.


Get Outlook for Android

[phv]

I am a 30 year+ IT engineer and have posted this suggestion based on research in the Netgear Orbi forum.

Up to you to believe it is non-sense but here is an explanation in case you would like to more carefully consider the hint 😉

The setup routine for many IoT devices (including most probably the Aria) is based on a selection in the WIFI list that the device (ex. iPhone, iPad) from which you do the setup (so *not* the Aria but the iPhone/iPad for example) is detecting.

 In case the WIFI has a single SSID covering both the 2.4GhZ and 5GhZ band (and for which the 5GhZ band cannot be disactivated such as Netgear Orbi mesh), the iPhone/iPad will only list one network and - if connected in 5Ghz - will incorrectly pass information that won't work for the IoT device being setup. The workaround (that many reported to have successfully used) is to move at a place where the iPhone connects using the 2.4GhZ signal. As 5GhZ cannot be disabled not have a distinct SSID on an NetGear Orbi mesh, it is not that easy: the recommendation is to unplug temporarily the Orbi satellite,  to go to the router advanced options to temporarily reduce the 5Ghz signal power to 25%, and to go at a distance as the 2.4GhZ signal can be detected on a longer distance than 5GhZ. Once the setup is completed, the satellites can be restarted and the full power of the 5GhZ band can be set again.

Afin, I didn(t test it with the Aria but the procedures as worked for many in Netgear forums for a range of IoT devices.

[J99j99]

Same problem.  I have 5g which makes the sync function not work anyone found  a work around? This is so sucky that my scale is fairly useless landfill now.

[J99j99]

Fitbit should stand behind their products.  Makes me sour on the whole company.  An expensive scale that no longer syncs.  Ridiculous!! They should provide a work around or a new chip.  Or even a free upgrade.  $129 piece of landfill.

[phv]

You need to disable 5GHZ on your router (or to have a distinct SSID than for 2.4GhZ) for the time of the Aria configuration *only*. Once configured, you can turn back the features.

It is more complicated if you have a modern mesh where the trick is to go at a distance at configuration time.
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